Complex Sites

Get Your Weekly Digest

Search

COMPLEX participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means COMPLEX gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive.

Miley Cyrus Takes Back Apology For Controversial 'Vanity Fair' Shoot 10 Years Later

As a 15-year-old, Miley Cyrus posed for a Vanity Fair photo shoot with renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz that stirred up controversy around the Disney star, who was still in the midst of her career as Hannah Montana.

The photo in question was a shot of Cyrus wrapped in a satin sheet with her back exposed. The image was published in a Vanity Fair story alongside a caption that explained: "Um, was Cyrus—or Disney—at all anxious about this shot? 'No, I mean I had a big blanket on. And I thought, 'This looks pretty and really natural. I think it’s really artsy.'"

Despite her precautions, the photo led to heavy backlash for the Disney actress and she was forced to apologize. "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed," Cyrus said at the time. "I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about."

Now, ten years later, Cyrus has taken back her apology. "I'M NOT SORRY," she wrote on Twitter, along with the cover of a 2008 issue of the New York Post.

Of course, the incident was only the beginning of a decade of controversies for Cyrus. In the years to come, she would end up doing multiple nude photo shoots with other high-profile photographers like Terry Richardson. But the 2008 Vanity Fair photo shoot represented the public's first peek at the post-Disney Cyrus she would reveal to the world.

It seems Cyrus chose this weekend as the time to finally take back her apology because it is the ten-year anniversary of the cover. The post came at the tail end of a spree of throwback posts on Twitter. You can see a few more below.